Christopher Paul CurtisIn 1953, Christopher Paul Curtis was born in Flint, Michigan, the same city where the story's family, the Watsons, live. As a young adult, Curtis worked on a General Motor's assembly line attaching car doors on Buicks, and he utilized his break time in order to write. Encouraged by his wife Kaysandra, Curtis eventually left his factory job to focus on writing, and this allowed him to complete his first book, The Watsons Go to Birmingham — 1963.
"As you can tell from my books, family is very important to me. The Watsons is based a lot on my own family when I was growing." -Curtis |
Curtis has explained how the book's main character Kenny is "kind of a combination of myself and my brother David," and how Kenny's little sister Joey "is a lot like my sister Cydney" (Scholastic, 2016). In fact, the photos on the book cover feature photos of his actual family. The little girl on the right side of the cover is his sister Cydney, and the couple in the middle photo is his parents.
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Throughout The Watsons Go to Birmingham, Curtis includes details from his own life. For instance, he shares how the incident "when Momma tries to cure Byron of setting fires by threatening to burn his fingertips" really happened and how his sister Cydney rescued him (Lamb, 2000, p. 398).
"Kenny was kind of hooked on Yakkity Yak. That is sort of like me. I get hooked on a song; I listen to it over and over and over" (Curtis, 2002).
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"I love listening to music. It touches something very deep inside of us. Sometimes I get the same feeling after writing as I get when I listen to a really good piece of music. It takes you somewhere else. It takes you out of yourself and opens up something mysterious." -Curtis |
"With The Watsons go to Birmingham, I was listening to a song by Steven Wonder called, I Wish. I think some of the flavor made it into the book" (Curtis, 2002).
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As a child, Curtis "didn't find books, 'that were about me'" (Lamb, 2000, p. 398). Now, as an author, he hopes that "my books can provide some kind of entrée to young black kids, and to all kids really. But particularly to young black kids, where they have somebody that they can look at and say, 'You know, that’s me. That’s something dealing with me'" (Curtis, 2002).
"The scene in The Watsons Go to Birmingham, where Miss Henry takes Kenny around and shows his reading skills to the other children, that happened to me. One of the really fun things about writing is you can thank the people who have made a difference to you. My teacher, Ms. Emery, would take me to different classes and have me read to them, and even have me read upside down. As a writer, you can bring things like this into the story. It makes it more vital. It makes it more real" (Curtis, 2002).
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The Watsons Go to Birmingham was inspired by a road trip to Florida that Curtis's family took when his sister-in-law moved to Florida. His wife planned the trip in great detail similar to the mother in the book, and like the father, Curtis thought, "No, no, I want to see if I can drive twenty-four hours in a row" (Scholastic, 2016). While driving, he thought up the family that he would write into The Watsons Go to Florida.
Florida? Yes, the original version had the Watsons going to Florida! It was not until Curtis's son brought home Dudley Randall's poem "The Ballad of Birmingham" that "he knew the family wanted to go to Birmingham" (Curtis, 2002). Learn more about the poem under Context. |
Images
- Christopher Paul Curtis image by Jeffrey Beall - Own work CC BY 3.0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Paul_Curtis
- Book cover image: http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2012/06/04/top-100-childrens-novels-25-the-watsons-go-to-birmingham-1963-by-christopher-paul-curtis/
- Storyboard That Comic:
http://www.storyboardthat.com/storyboards/willowfaircloth/the-watson's-flamethrower-of-death - Family by car image: https://raycornelius.com/2013/07/take-a-look-the-watsons-go-to-birmingham-trailer/